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The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the High Court verdict that confirmed the death sentences of 12 retired and dismissed army men for killing the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and all but two of his family on August 15, 1975.
   The five-member Appellate Division bench headed by Justice Tafazzul Islam delivered the judgement dismissing the appeals filed by five detained death-row convicts — sacked lieutenant colonel Syed Faruque Rahman, retired lieutenant colonel Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, retired lieutenant colonel Muhiuddin Ahmed, retired lieutenant colonel AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed and retired major Bazlul Huda — against the High Court verdict.
   The death sentences of retired colonel Khandaker Abdur Rashid, retired major Shariful Haque Dalim, retired lieutenant colonel AM Rashed Chowdhury, retired lieutenant colonel SHMB Noor Chowdhury, retired captain Abdul Mazed and retired risaldar Moslemuddin delivered by the High Court stand valid as they are still in hiding.
   The other condemned convict, retired lieutenant colonel Md Abdul Aziz Pasha reportedly died earlier abroad.
   All the five judges unanimously endorsed the order of the highest court at noon in a jam-packed courtroom under an unassailable security cover at the Supreme Court building and heightened security measures across the country.
   The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, on Thursday urged the people to remain calm while the home minister, Sahara Khatun, told reporters the heightened security would continue to be in force until further order.
   Almost all of the political parties welcomed the verdict saying the verdict might end the politics of killing.
   Although no official reaction was received from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, its standing committee member Moudud Ahmed, also a former law minister, at a briefing said the verdict had upheld the rule of law. ‘The nation has heaved a sigh of relief at the verdict.’
   All the five judges — Justice Tafazzul Islam, Justice Md Abdul Aziz, Justice BK Das, Justice Md Muzammel Hossain and Justice SK Sinha — unanimously endorsed the order of the highest court dismissing all the appeals filed by the condemned prisoners. The court also vacated its stay on the execution of the death sentences of the five detained convicts.
   On behalf of the bench, Justice Tafazzul Islam pronounced the order part of the verdict in the courtroom crammed with lawyers, journalists, and people high up in the government, including the prime minister’s adviser on energy Taufiq Elahi Chowdhury, state minister for foreign affairs Hasan Mahmud, LGRD state minister Jahangir Kabir Nanak, ruling alliance lawmaker Rashed Khan Menon, also Workers Party of Bangladesh president, and former chief whip Abul Hasnat Abdullah.
   The complainant, Muhitul Islam, and the investigation officer of the case, Abdul Kahhar Akand, were also present when the verdict was delivered.
   ‘The appellants having failed to make out a case of extenuating circumstances to commute their sentence of death, we are not inclined to interfere with the sentence of death,’ the court said in the verdict.
   Dismissing the defence plea outright, the court said, ‘There is no legal evidence on the record to come to the conclusion that the murder of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and other members of his family, including the three security personnel, had been committed as a consequence of mutiny and we are of the view that it is not a case of criminal conspiracy to commit mutiny rather a criminal conspiracy to commit the murder of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and other members of his family.’
   Disapproving of the defence plea that the offence of murder by an army man is triable under the Army Act, the judgment said, ‘As the appellants were not in “active service” within the meaning of Section 8(1) of the Army Act 1952, their trial by an ordinary criminal court is not barred by any provisions of the Army Act.
   ‘Even if it is assumed that it [murder] is a “civil offence” within the meaning of Section 8(2) of the Army Act, there is no bar for trial of such offence in view of section 94 of the Army Act.’
   About the trial mode involving the third judge of the High Court, the Appellate Division said, ‘The third judge was competent to decide the cases of six of the convicts about whom the judges of the High Court division bench were equally divided in their opinion.
   ‘Thus the third judge was in agreement with the decision of the judges of the division bench in respect of nine convicts about whom there was no difference of opinion.’
   On the issue of delayed filing of the case, filed 21 years after the August 15, 1975 killing, the apex court said, ‘The sessions judge and also the judges of the High Court division have believed the explanation given by the prosecution regarding the delay in lodging the first information report on assessment of the evidence on the record; this concurrent finding of fact, in our view, does not call for any interference.’
   As for allegation of miscarriage of justice in accepting the death reference, the judgement said, ‘… the appellants having failed to make out a case that the High Court Division has caused a grave substantial injustice or miscarriage of justice in accepting the death reference so far it relates to the appellants without proper evaluation and sifting of evidence, we find no cogent ground to interfere with the judgment of the High Court.’
   The pro-Awami League lawyers came out flashing the V-sign as scores of supporters of the ruling Awami League shouted slogans in and outside the court premises demanding execution of the verdict.
   The state minister for law, Quamrul Islam, told reporters the death sentences of the five former army officers in the case might be executed by December or early January after completing the entire legal process.
   Without mentioning any specific timeframe, the home minister, Sahara Khatun, told reporters the verdict would be executed soon in accordance with the law.
   The chief prosecutor of the case, Anisul Huq, however, at a briefing after the verdict said, ‘A death sentence needs to be executed within 28 days, but not before 21 days, after the date when the jail authority receives the copy of the verdict.’
   The five detained death-row convicts will file applications with the Appellate Division seeking a revision of its verdict, said their counsel.
   Their advocate-on-record Nurul Islam Bhuiyan submitted a petition seeking the certified copy of the verdict immediately after pronouncement of the verdict on Thursday as the application for a review needs to be accompanied with the certified copy, said their counsels — Khan Saifur Rahman, Abdur Razzaque Khan and Abdullah Al Mamun.
   They will also have the scope to seek presidential clemency.
   Before the long-awaited verdict, security was also beefed up in the capital and elsewhere in the country while the condemned prisoners have been under a close watch.
   Several closed-circuit cameras have been installed at the main entrance of the Supreme Court building and metal detectors have been installed at every entrance towards the chief justice’s courtroom.
   Officials said more than 5,500 additional police and Rapid Action Battalion personnel were posted to different strategic points in the capital, including more than 500 laying the security bulwark around the Supreme Court, to keep order.
   The five-member Appellate Division bench after the hearing in the appeals for 29 days on November 12 posted the verdict delivery for Thursday. The court started hearing in the appeals on October 5.
   The Appellate Division had earlier exhausted 26 working days on granting permission to the five detained convicts to appeal against the High Court verdict. The permission was granted on September 23, 2007.
   Quazi Golam Rasul, who was the Dhaka district and sessions judge, on November 8, 1998 sentenced to death 15 out of the 20 accused of killing Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and all but two of the family in 1975.
   Sheikh Mujib’s personal assistant Muhitul Islam filed the murder case with the Dhanmondi police on October 2, 1996, 21 years after the killing.
   Eleven people, including Sheikh Mujib, his wife Fazilatunessa Mujib, sons Sheikh Kamal, Sheikh Jamal and Sheikh Russell, daughters-in-law Sultana Kamal and Rosy Jamal, and brother Sheikh Naser were killed in his residence at Dhanmondi early August 15, 1975.
   Two others killed in the house were Detective Branch officer Nurul Islam Khan and sepoy Shamsu of the house guards, who were on duty.
   The president’s military secretary Colonel Jamil, who was rushing to the residence of the then president in response to his call, was also killed near the Sobahanbagh mosque.
   Only Mujib’s daughters Sheikh Hasina, now the prime minister and Awami League president, and Sheikh Rehana survived the killing as they were abroad at the time.
   The High Court on December 14, 2000 delivered a split verdict in the case. Justice M Ruhul Amin, the senior judge of the High Court bench, upheld the death sentences of 10 convicts while the other judge, ABM Khairul Haque, retained the death sentences for all the 15.
   Justice Fazlul Karim in the final High Court verdict in the case on April 30, 2001 upheld death sentences for 12 and acquitted three.
   The Appellate Division bench of Justice Tafazzul Islam, Justice Joynul Abedin and Justice M Hassan Ameen on September 23, 2007 allowed the five death-row convicts to appeal against the High Court verdict, delivered in 2001, on five points.
   The army men sentenced by the sessions judge to death are Syed Faruque Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Chowdhury, Mohiuddin Ahmed, Khandaker Abdur Rashid, Bazlul Huda, Shariful Huq Dalim, Ahmed Shaful Hossain also named as Shariful Islam, Rashed Chowdhury, AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed, Nur Chowdhury, Md Aziz Pasha, who died after he had been sentenced, Md Kismat Hashem, Nazmul Hossain Anseri, Abdul Mazed and Moslemuddin.
   Shariful, Kismat and Nazmul were acquitted of the charges by the final High Court verdict.
   The government, however, did not file any appeal against the acquittal.
   Faruque, Shahriar, Muhiuddin Ahmed and Bazlul, who were in jail at the time, filed petitions with the Appellate Division seeking permission to appeal against the verdict.
   AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed filed a similar petition after the US government had deported him to Bangladesh from Los Angeles on June 17, 2007.

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana, the two family members of the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who survived the August 15 massacre, on Thursday expressed their satisfaction with the Supreme Court verdict.
   The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the High Court verdict that confirmed death sentences of 12 retired and dismissed army men in Sheikh Mijubur Rahman Murder Case.
   Hasina, who returned home yesterday morning after attending the World Summit on Food Security-2009 in Rome, has also asked people to remain calm and patient following the court verdict and called upon all to offer prayers for the just verdict, said PM’s deputy press secretary Nakibuddin Ahmed.
   Talking to reporters outside PM’s official residence Jamuna, he said that after hearing the verdict, Hasina, also the ruling Awami League president, expressed gratitude to Almighty Allah by offering nafal prayers.
   She also talked to her younger sister Sheikh Rehana, her son Sajib Wazed Joy, daughter Saima Wazed Putul, now in living abroad, over telephone.
   Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated at his Dhanmondi residence in a bloody military coup on August 15, 1975. All but two of his family members were killed in a grisly shootout which Hasina and Rehana survived as they were away in Germany at that time.
   Sheikh Rehana, younger daughter of Sheikh Mujib, in her reaction, said it was important that the verdict has been upheld by the Supreme Court, according to bdnews24.com.
   Rehana told the news agency over telephone, ‘I pray for the peace of the departed souls of those who were killed that day. I hope the shame of the incident will be erased from our history through this final verdict.’ She said the trial has finally ended after 34 years and justice has been established.
   The ruling Awami League expressed satisfaction over the court verdict and termed it as historic.
   Party general secretary Syed AShrtaful Islam, while briefing to reporters at the party’s Dhanmondi office, said it has also been proved that truth and justice always prevail. ‘The verdict could not bring joy to the Awami League men as it would not be able to bring back Bangabandhu and his assassinated family members.’
   ‘The Bangalee nation was freed from the black scar it was bearing for long 34 years and the verdict has proved that no one is above law, no matter how influential he or she is,’ he said.
   ‘Fair justice and vengeance is not the same thing. Awami League never believes in vengeance. We have not taken any step in that direction for a moment even. Extra-judicial killings, revenge and vengeance only encourage the politics of killing and terrorism,’ Ashraf, also the LGRD and cooperatives minister, said.
   He accused the governments of Ziaur Rahman, HM Ershad, Khaleda Zia and the caretaker government led by Fakhruddin Ahmed for not taking initiatives for trial of the killers of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
   Replying to a question, Ashraf said the fugitive convicts of the case, wherever they might have taken refuge, would be brought back to Bangladesh and put on the dock for trial one day, whatever time it takes.
   He also said the government would take every initiatives to bring back the killers of Sheikh Mujib. ‘We have waited for 34 years and we are ready to wait for another 34 years for ensuring punishment of the killers of Bangabandhu.’
   Ashraf claimed that the trail process of the case was transparent as it was not a ‘kangaroo trial’ or a summery trial. The trial was lauded at home and abroad, he added.
    Responding to a query, Ashraf said the AL-led alliance government was committed to try the war criminals and it must be held on the soil of Bangladesh soon. He also said the government is pledge-bound to root out such an evil alternative politics from the soil of Bangladesh once and for all through establishing good governance, democratic practice and the rule of law
   Asked about party chief Sheikh Hasina’s reaction, the AL leader said the prime minister became emotional and burst into tears while she expressed her satisfaction over the verdict.
   The AL announced a daylong programme following the verdict which include milad and doa mahfil and ‘shokrana’ prayers at all the mosques across the country after Ju’maa prayers on Friday. Special prayers will also be offered at all the places of worships including temples, churches and pagodas.
   Thousands of Awami League leaders and activists gathered at the party’s central office on Bangabandhu Avenue, Bangabandhu Memorial Musium and the party’s Dhanmondi office since early morning on Thursday.
   On hearing the verdict, many leaders paid homage to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman by laying flowers at Mujib’s portrait at the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum.
   Ministers, PM’s advisers and leaders of AL and its associate bodies met the prime minister at Jamuna.

The government has expedited moves to bring back the fugitives convicted in the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman murder case.
   The Appellate Division on Thursday delivered its verdict dismissing the appeals filed by five death-row convicts now in jail against the High Court verdict that had upheld death sentences of 12 former military men.
   ‘We are taking measures to bring back the absconding persons for the full implementation of the verdict of the Supreme Court,’ Dipu Moni said in her foreign ministry office.
   She said the government was holding bilateral talks with foreign countries and international organisations, including Interpol. ‘We will do everything possible for the total execution of the verdict.’
   When asked whether it would be possible to bring back all the absconding convicts as the country does not have extradition treaty with many countries, she said, ‘Extradition treaty is not essential to bring them back from abroad. We have brought back one of them although there was no treaty. I think we will be able to manage things through bilateral and multilateral talks.’
   The minister declined to detail on the whereabouts of the absconding persons. ‘We need to maintain secrecy at certain levels.’
   She requested all to provide information on the whereabouts of the killers of Sheikh Mujib.
   The state minister for law, Quamrul Islam, told reporters in his office, ‘We have taken all-out measures to bring back the fugitives staying in foreign countries to avoid the death sentence they were awarded in the Bangabandhu murder case.’
   He said the government had sought Interpol cooperation in arresting the convicts staying abroad.
   ‘The absconding convicts might be staying in Libya, Canada and India as far as what we have come to know of their whereabouts… We will negotiate with the governments of these countries once we become certain on the location of the fugitives,’ Quamrul said.
   The convicts absconding abroad are former army officials — lieutenant colonel Khandoker Abdur Rashid, major Shariful Islam, lieutenant colonel AM Rashed Chowdhury, lieutenant colonel SHBM Nur Chowdhury, risaldar Moslemuddin and captain Abdul Majed. Another convict, Md Abdul Pasha died, in Zimbabwe in 2002.
   ‘We cannot locate the convicted fugitives in the Bangabandhu murder case as they are moving from one country to another… We have officially sought cooperation of Interpol in arresting the convicts,’ the home minister, Sahara Khatun, said on Monday.
   She said the government had issued the ‘red alert notice’ against the convicts through Interpol seeking cooperation of the member countries in arresting the culprits.
   Asked about the steps the government has taken to bring back the fugitives, the attorney general, Mahbubey Alam, said the Thursday’s appeals verdict that the government had called upon all expatriates to trace the locations of the culprits and inform the Bangladesh missions abroad.
   ‘At present six convicts are absconding abroad…Ershad-Zia governments rehabilitated the culprits with jobs at Bangladesh missions in foreign countries. All Bangladeshi expatriates staying over the globe have been asked to extend cooperation in arresting the convicts,’ the country’s chief law officer told reporters.
   During the appeal hearing in the Appellate Division on November 9, the attorney general prayed for some directives so that the government could bring back the fugitive convicts home.
   It has been reported that Rashid is now staying in Libya or Belgium and Dalim in Pakistan or Hong Kong, Rashed Chowdhury might be in the United States and Nur Chowdhury in Canada, and Mazed might be hiding in an African country. Moslemuddin was reportedly staying in India in 2001.
   Out of the 15 convicted in the murder case, six were absconding abroad, five are in jail, one died abroad and others were acquitted.
   Quazi Golam Rasul, then the Dhaka district and sessions judge, on November 8, 1998 sentenced to death 15 of the 20 accused for killing the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and all but two of the family on August 15, 1975.
   Mujib’s personal assistant Muhitul Islam filed the murder case with the Dhanmondi police on October 2, 1996, 21 years after the carnage.
   The army men sentenced by the sessions judge to death are Syed Faruque Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Chowdhury, Mohiuddin Ahmed, Khandaker Abdur Rashid, Bazlul Huda, Shariful Huq Dalim, Ahmed Shaful Hossain also named as Shariful Islam, Rashed Chowdhury, AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed, Nur Chowdhury, Md. Aziz Pasha, who was died later, Md. Kismat Hashem, Nazmul Hossain Anseri, Abdul Mazed and Moslemuddin.
   Shariful, Kismat and Nazmul were acquitted of the charges by the final High Court verdict.
   AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed filed a similar petition after the US government had deported him to Bangladesh from Los Angeles on June 18, 2007.
   Earlier in 1998, the Bangladesh government signed an extradition treaty with Thailand and brought back Bazlul Huda from Thailand on November 8, 1998, the day the verdict was delivered by the trial court.
   The Awami League-led government has resumed discussions with various countries such as India, United States and Canada for signing extradition treaties.

The process for the execution of death sentences of the five detained death-row convicts in the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman murder case already began on Thursday as the jail authority received the copy of the Appellate Division’s verdict a few hours after its pronouncement.
   The five death-row detainees — sacked lieutenant colonel Syed Faruque Rahman, retired lieutenant colonel Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, retired lieutenant colonel Muhiuddin Ahmed, retired lieutenant colonel AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed and retired major Bazlul Huda — were also informed of the verdict.
   The deputy inspector general of prisons, Golam Haider, told bdnews24.com they had received the copy of the judgement before evening.
   Going by the Jail Code, Dhaka central jail officials told the five their appeals against previous court verdicts to hang them were dismissed.
   They were also briefed that they could seek presidential clemency in seven days, he added.
   The government initiated the process for the execution of the death sentences while the convicts still have the scope to take two legal steps against the execution.
   The five death-row convicts will file applications with the Appellate Division seeking revision of its verdict delivered on Thursday upholding their death sentences, said their counsels.
   Their advocate-on-record Nurul Islam Bhuiyan submitted a petition seeking the certified copy of the verdict immediately after pronouncement of the verdict on Thursday as the application for review needs to be accompanied with the certified copy according to Rule 3 of Order XXVI of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh (Appellate Division) Rules 1988.
   The state minister for law, Quamrul Islam, in his ministry told reporters on Thursday the death sentences of the five former army officers in the case might be executed by December or early January after completing the entire legal process.
   Without mentioning any specific timeframe, the home minister, Sahara Khatun, told reporters the verdict would be executed soon in accordance with the law.
   The chief prosecutor of the case, Anisul Huq, however, at a briefing after the verdict said, ‘A death sentence needs to be executed within 28 days, but not before 21 days, after the date when the jail authority receives the copy of the verdict.’
   Quamrul and Anis, however, said the detained five convicts had the scope to seek revision of the verdict by the Appellate Division and also to seek presidential clemency.
   Asked about the six other death-row convicts now in hiding, Anis said the Appellate Division on Thursday delivered the verdict regarding the five detained convicts only. ‘The death sentences of six other convicts were ready for execution after the pronouncement of the High Court verdict as they did not file any petition seeking permission to appeal against the High Court verdict which upheld their sentences.’
   Their death sentences will be executed after they are brought back from their hideouts abroad and the process to bring them back is on, said Sahara, Quamrul and Anis.
   Asked whether the six convicts now in hiding will have the scope to appeal against the High Court verdict, Anis said, ‘You observed AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed filed a petition seeking permission to appeal against the High Court verdict after the US government had sent him back to Bangladesh from Los Angeles on June 17, 2007. The Appellate Division had heard his petition and allowed him to appeal.’
   ‘If any of the six other convicts files any such petition, we will make our submissions to the court on the issue,’ he said.
   According to law, the process of execution of the death sentences of the five detained convicts will begin with the signing of the judgement by the
   five Appellate Division judges.
   The Supreme Court registrar on Thursday sent the copy of the verdict to the jail authority, who initiated the process for the execution of the death sentences as the execution remains stayed following the filing of petitions by the convicts seeking permission to appeal against the High Court verdict.
   According to Rule 991 of the Jail Code, on receipt of the copy of the verdict, the jail authorities informed the convicts that if they want to submit a mercy petition to the president, they need to do it in writing in seven days.
   If any of the convicts opts for filing a mercy petition, the prison authorities will need to send it along with a covering letter informing the date set for the execution and also to certify that the execution will stay pending until receipt of the president’s response to the mercy petition.
   If no reply to the mercy petition is received within 15 days, the jailers will need to remind the home secretary of the matter. In case mercy is denied by the president or the secretary does not reply in the next 15 days, the jailers will execute the death sentences in 7 to 15 days.
   The jail authorities will need to set dates for the execution of the death sentences within 28 days, but not before 21 days, of the expiry of the stipulated 30-day time or from the date when they receive information of rejection of the mercy petitions, according to the Jail Code.
   Before submission of the mercy petition, the detained convicts, however, will filed petitions with the Appellate Division seeking revision of its verdict, said their counsel — Khan Saifur Rahman, Abdur Razzaque Khan and Abdullah Al Mamun.
   The counsel also mentioned their advocate-on-record Nurul Islam Bhuiyan submitted a petition seeking the certified copy of the verdict immediately after the pronouncement of the verdict.
   Although the convicts have the scope to file such applications for review in 30 days after receiving the certified copy of the verdict, the applications will be filed immediately after the copy is obtained, the counsel said.
   According to law and the Appellate Division Rules, the execution of the death sentences is not stayed automatically with the submission of the application for review.
   The Appellate Division, however, have the right to stay the execution after hearing the application.
   In a recent instance, the Appellate Division on February 12, 2007 stayed the execution of the death sentence of Khaled Saifullah, one of the seven kingpins of the banned Islamist militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, who were condemned to death for killing two judges in Jhalakathi.
   The stay order came up after Khaled had filed an application seeking review of the Appellate Division verdict that had upheld the death sentences of the seven kingpins.
   The same five-member bench of the Appellate Division, which delivered Thursday’s verdict, will need to hear the applications for a review to be filed by the five convicts, according to Rule 7 of Order XXVI of the Appellate Division Rules.
   If the Appellate Division stays the execution, the process of the execution, including the clemency petition, will remain stayed. The process might restart if the Appellate Division retains its verdict after hearing the application for the review.

The government on Thursday sought expression of interest from the international investors to construction an elevated expressway in the capital which some experts believe would be less viable in solving the city’s nagging traffic problems.
   Transport experts and city planners preferred dedicate bus services, more space for the pedestrians and creation of a circular waterway to elevated expressway and metro rail to solve the city’s nightmarish traffic snarls.
   They pointed out that such infrastructure projects proved to be a huge burden for countries like Thailand and India as they had to provide subsidy from the public exchequer to build and operate those.
   The present government is defying the experts’ suggestions and approved at least two costly city-based transport infrastructure projects at a meeting last month.
   The latest expression of interest sought by bridge division under the ministry of communication is part of a plan to build 32.5 kilometers long or more elevated highways at a proposed cost of $2.0 billion.
   International investors have been asked to submit their proposals stating their experiences and requisite qualifications in financing and construction of expressways, toll roads and bridges on a BOOT (Built, Own, Operate and Transfer), BOT (Built, Operate and Transfer) and PPP (Public Private Partnership) basis with combined value of not less than $500 million over the last 12 years.
   They will have to submit their expression of interest by January 20, 2010.
   The pre-qualified bidders will finally be selected through an international competitive bidding process from a pool of applicants who will meet the criteria set forth in the pre-qualification document.
   The main responsibilities of the investors would be to formulate a design and an execution strategy including fixation of usage rates so that public transports and high-occupancy vehicles (HOV) would feel encouraged to use it.
   The elevated expressway that will start from Uttara will reach Sonargaon through Zia Internatianl Airpoprt, Jahanagir Gate and Farmgate. It will be spilt into two parts from Sonargoan with main part traveling through Mogbazar, Malibagh, Kamalapur, Saidabad, Zatrabari to end up at Sanir Akhra. The other spilt will reach Gulistan from Sonargaon through Kataban and Fulbaria.
   Bridge division officials said the express highway help ease the nagging traffic problem in the city whose existing population of 13 million will double in next 20 years.
   Professor Dr Sarwar Jahan of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology said express elevated highways would not be able to reduce traffic congestion in Dhaka.
   The head of urban and regional planning department of BUET observed that these projects would not be financially viable for an economy like us. ‘These projects will eventually be a burden for the government,’ he said while talking to New Age.
   Dr Mahbubul Bari, an international transport expert who is now working as communication adviser in Rwanda, had told a seminar that Strategic Transport Plan which suggested construction of express highway and metro rail was flawed.
   The government should have given the pedestrians first priority and second and third priority should be for by-cycle and non-motorised rickshaws as these modes of transports are fuel-free, zero emission of smoke and occupy very small space on the road.
   The fourth priority has to be given to public transports including buses, Bari pointed out.

The Election Commission on Thursday wrote to three political parties, including the ruling Awami League, asking for further amendments to their respective constitutions which, it said, had provisions in conflict with the Representation of the People Order.
   The two other political parties which have been asked to amend their constitutions in line with the RPO provisions are Liberal Democratic Party and Jatiya Party (JP-Manju).
   'The letters asking the parties to correct their constitutions have been sent to the general secretaries of the parties,' NI Khan, joint secretary (law) of the Election Commission Secretariat told New Age on Thursday.
   He said that the commission had completed review of the constitutions of four political parties. Of them, the commission on November 9 accepted the constitution of the Communist Party of Bangladesh and decided to ask the rest three political parties for further amendments. 'We are now examining the charters of other registered political parties,' he added.
   The commission earlier formed an experts' committee to look over the political parties' ratified constitutions submitted to it. A total of 39 parties got registered with the EC before the December 29 parliamentary elections. The parties made provisional changes to their constitutions to meet the registration criteria and pledged to ratify them in six months after the first sitting of the ninth parliament.
   The Awami League ratified the provisional amendments to its constitution at the party's national council session on July 24 and submitted a copy to the commission.
   The EC's letter sent to the AL noted that two provisions in its ratified constitution ran counter to the RPO. The provisions still recognise Swadhinata Chikitsak Parishad and Awami Ainjibi Parishad along with some others as the party's associate bodies, and allow formation of the party's units abroad.
   The RPO does not allow any party to have associated or affiliated bodies consisting of teachers or students of educational institutions, or employees or workers of any financial, commercial or industrial establishments or institutions, or members of any other professions.
   The constitutions of LDP and Jatiya Party (JP-Manju) miss provisions for reserving 33 per cent posts for women in all party committees, including the central committee, and achieving this goal by 2020. Their constitutions also does not provide for nomination of candidates for parliamentary polls by the parliamentary board of the party from the panels prepared by members of ward, union, thana, upazila or district committees concerned.

A suicide bomber struck a court in Peshawar on Thursday killing 19 people, the sixth attack on the northwestern city in 11 days as Pakistan presses a major offensive against the Taliban.
   The bomber hit at the main gate of the building, near the five-star Pearl Continental Hotel, where at least nine people were killed when attackers shot their way through a security checkpost and blew up a truck bomb in June.
   Blood, flesh and shattered window glass littered the ground outside the court building, whose main gate was uprooted and where an old man who used to repair spectacles and fountain pens was killed, an AFP reporter said.
   Thursday’s attack showed the militants’ ability to strike in the city of 2.5 million people, which lies on the edge of Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt, where US officials say al-Qaeda militants are plotting attacks on the West.
   Attacks in the northwest have soared as 30,000 Pakistani troops press into Taliban strongholds in the hostile terrain near the border with Afghanistan, where 100,000 NATO and US troops are fighting a deadly insurgency.
   ‘It was a suicide blast. The attacker was on foot and was trying to enter the judicial complex. When the security personnel stopped him, he blew himself up,’ Sahib Zada Anis, head of the city’s administration, told reporters.
   ‘The death toll has risen to 19 as three seriously injured died in hospital,’ Anis said, saying that three policemen were among the dead.
   The police said the bomber blew himself up as a van carrying prisoners passed.
   ‘It was a huge explosion. I saw smoke and dust everywhere. I fell on the stairs and then I started running to save my life,’ said Haji Hijab Gul, who was walking upstairs to court when he heard the blast.
   The attack came just three days after a suicide bomber blew up a car packed with explosives, killing four people in a suburb as children were going to school, devastating a mosque, damaging a college and the police station.
   Pakistan’s security forces are on the front line of a deadly al-Qaeda-linked campaign that has killed more than 2,550 people in 29 months in the nuclear-armed Muslim country and has recently increased in intensity.
   There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Thursday’s bombing, but Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has vowed to attack the cities to avenge a military assault on its South Waziristan stronghold, now into a fifth week.
   ‘We have hit them seriously. We have taken control of all their stronghold. We have destroyed the militants. Their commanders have either run away or been killed,’ the prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, told reporters in Islamabad.
   The TTP claimed responsibility for a suicide car bombing that killed 15 people in Peshawar on Saturday and the bombing of the Peshawar headquarters of the nation’s top intelligence agency, the ISI, on Friday that killed 17 people.
   The US president, Barack Obama, has reportedly increased pressure on Pakistan to fight not just Tehreek-e-Taliban, which launches attacks within Pakistan, but Taliban and al-Qaeda militants active in Afghanistan.
   US missiles fired earlier from an unmanned drone killed at least four militants in neighbouring North Waziristan district, Pakistani officials said.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country’s founding president, was killed along with all but two of his family, in a predawn carnage by a group of army personnel on August 15, 1975, that topplled the post-independence Awami League government.
   Following is the chronology of the events in the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman murder case:
   September 26, 1975: the infamous Indemnity Ordinance was promulgated by the self-proclaimed president Khondker Moshtaque Ahmed barring trial of the perpetrators of the August 15, 1975 killings.
   June 23, 1996: The Awami League under Sheikh Hasina returned to power after 21 years.
   August 14, 1996: Three ringleaders of Mujib murder plot – sacked lieutenant colonels Syed Farooque Rahman and Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan and former state minister Taheruddin Thakur were arrested.
   October 2, 1996: First information report on the August 15, 1975 carnage was lodged with the police by the then resident PA to the president, AFM Mohitul Islam.
   October 3, 1996: CID police takes up the case and launches investigation.
   November 12, 1996: The parliament scraps the Indemnity Ordinance clearing the way for bringing the killers to justice.
   November 14, 1996: The Indemnity (Repeal) Act 1996 was gazetted.
   January 15, 1997: CID submitted charge sheet against 20 accused to chief metropolitan magistrate’s court.
   March 1, 1997: Dhaka chief metropolitan magistrate transferred the case to Dhaka district and sessions’ judge’s court for trial.
   March 12, 1997: Trial starts as six arrested accused appeared in court.
   March 20, 1997: The government appointed 14 lawyers to defend 14 accused who fled the country after the 1996 general elections.
   April 7, 1997: Charges were framed against the 20 accused.
   April 21, 1997: Trial abruptly adjourned on the first day of hearing as a defence counsel (of fugitive colonel Rashid’s wife Zobaida Rashid) moves a ‘no-confidence’ motion in the High Court against the sessions judge.
   April 29, 1997: Trial resumed after the High Court had rejected Zobaida’s petition.
   April 29, 1997: Trial was adjourned immediately after the resumption as another defence counsel filed a petition in the High Court challenging the holding of the trial at a makeshift courtroom near Dhaka Central Jail.
   April 30, 1997: The High Court rejected the petition.
   May 4, 1997: The High Court suspended the trial for one month on a plea from the lawyer for an accused saying he needed time to settle an appeal to overturn Zobaida’s indictment.
   June 19, 1997: Trial resumed, but postponed again immediately for the third time as Zobaida’s lawyer moved petition against her indictment in the High Court.
   July 6, 1997: Trial started with 19 accused as the High Court cleared Zobaida of charges of plotting the Mujib murder.
   July 6, 1997: Prime witness Mohitual Islam testified before the court.
   March 2, 1998: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court rejected an appeal against the scrapping of the Indemnity Ordinance after a 15-day hearing.
   July 9, 1998: Bangladesh and Thailand signed an extradition treaty to bring back fugitive former major Bazlul Huda, one of the two men who had shot Mujib dead.
   October 13, 1998: The 17-month trial process ended on the 146th day of hearing.
   November 8, 1998: Judge Kazi Golam Rasul handed down death penalties to 15 former army personnel.
   November 8, 1998 : Former major Bazlul Huda was brought back in an air force jet from Thailand.
   August 24, 2000: Hearing in the death reference began in the High Court.
   December 14, 2000: A High Court bench delivered split judgement after 28 days of hearing. Senior judge M Ruhul Amin upheld the death penalties of 10 out of the 15 and the other judge ABM Khairul Haque confirmed the death sentences of all the 15.
   February 12, 2001: The third High Court judge began hearing the death reference and appeal to resolve the split verdict.
   April 30, 2001: Justice Mohammad Fazlul Karim confirmed the death sentences of 12 of the accused after 25 days of hearing.
   June 18, 2007: The United States deported fugitive convict, former lieutenant colonel AKM Mohiuddin (lancer) to Dhaka.
   September 23, 2007: A three-member Appellate Division bench allowed five detained convicts to appeal against the High Court verdict after 26 days of hearing.
   October 4, 2009: Chief Justice MM Ruhul Amin constituted a five-member Appellate Division bench for hearing the appeals.
   October 5, 2009: The Appellate Division began hearing the appeals.
   November 12, 2009: The Appellate Division posted the verdict for November 19 after concluding the 29-day hearing in the appeals.
   November 19, 2009: The Appellate Division pronounced the verdict dismissing the appeals and upholding the High Court judgment.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s standing committee member Moudud Ahmed on Thursday said the Appellate Division verdict in the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman murder case had upheld rule of law.
   ‘The nation has heaved a sigh of relief at the verdict,’ he told newsmen at his chamber after the Supreme Court rejected the appeals of the condemned convicts in the Mujib murder case.
   ‘The killings of August 15, 1975 were a great tragedy for the nation. The trial process had begun in 1996 – about 21 years after the killings and 13 years after the filing of the case, the apex court has given the verdict. We have to accept the verdict and it should not be considered from partisan perspectives,’ he said.
   Moudud also blasted the attempts to involve Ziaur Rahman in the killing of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. ‘After the pronouncement of the verdict, such allegations have proved to be completely baseless and politically motivated.’
   The BNP leader said that the five among the 12 convicts, who were in jail, could submit review petitions. ‘I do not know whether they would be allowed to do so though it is a basic right. If a review petition is accepted, it would be forwarded to the president by the law ministry via the prime minister. The verdict would be executed finally after the president’s decision,’ he said.

Thousands of farmers protesting low state-controlled sugarcane prices forced the postponement of the first day of the parliamentary winter session on Thursday, highlighting rural discontent over government policy.
   Some 5,000 farmers from Uttar Pradesh, India's biggest cane producing state, marched to the opening of the parliament to demand higher state-set prices for sugarcane.
   Parts of the capital were disrupted by the protests, that were backed by opposition parties.
   The Congress-led coalition won re-election with a stronger mandate in May, raising hopes of quick reforms, but it has moved slowly and is still answerable to a reform-shy rural base. It faces political opposition to rapid change and deregulation as protests on Thursday highlighted.
   The government has given the states greater autonomy in fixing sugarcane prices, one of India's biggest cash crops, in order to lift restrictions on a heavily-regulated sugar sector.
   But many farmers are unhappy with those state-set prices, saying they benefit sugar firms.
   The government has set a series of reforms ranging from the financial sector to law and order and gender equality as priorities for the winter parliament session.
   Investors are following whether the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, will follow up on his pledge to push ahead with difficult financial reforms, particularly in the insurance and pension sectors.
   The state government has fixed the price the mills must pay to farmers at 165-170 rupees ($3.55-$3.66) per 100 kg, and farmers have been seeking a higher price that corresponds more to the rise in retail prices.
   'We demand at least 215 rupees as the cane price,' Anil Singh, national secretary of the National Alliance of Farmers' Associations, said.
   Sugar output in Uttar Pradesh is likely to fall below estimates as the weakest monsoon in more than three decades has hit sucrose content in cane.

Fazle Noor Taposh, son of slain Shekh Fazlul Haque Moni, said he received the ‘best birthday gift’ on Supreme Court confirming Thursday the death sentence of the killers of his father.
   ‘My parents could not celebrate my birthday on November 19, 1975. Today, I have got my best birthday gift,’ an emotional Taposh, who is also one of the lawyers of the state panel in Mujib murder case, told a press briefing.
   Toposh’s mother Arzu Moni was among those killed on August 15, 1975. His father was the nephew of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
   ‘The Supreme Court has pronounced the landmark verdict Thursday. We had to struggle 34 years for the trial of the killing’ he said.
   ‘His soul (Bangabandhu) will get peace today. Today’s verdict has proved that the rule of law is being established in Bangladesh’, Taposh said.

A mob Thursday night set fire to a house owned by lancer Mohiuddin Ahmed, a death-row convict in the Mujib murder case and now in jail, at Galachipa in Patuakhali.
   The police said brick-built, tin-roofed, two-storey house of Mohiuddin at Chowrasta more in the upazila town was rented out to Rokunuzzaman Rokon, a lecturer of the Galachipa College.
   Rokon along with the family left the house Thursday morning fearing attack. He took all the furniture with him and locked up the house.
   A group of people about 9:00pm Thursday set the house on fire after trying to ransack it.

Siddiqur Rahman Khan, senior staff correspondent for New Age, has won the 'President's Award' for best reporting on education in 2009 as the Dhaka Reporters Unity on Thursday declared annual media awards, said a press release.
   The award winning report, headlined 'Old textbooks hamper education of 80 lakh primary students: Used books have chapters missing, exercises filled in,' was carried by New Age on May 3, 2009.
   Munni Saha of ATN Bangla won the best prize for investigative TV reporting. The prize is by courtesy of the Dhaka City Corporation.
   Shawkat Hossain Masum of the daily Prothom Alo was named the winner of the best prize for objective economic reporting.
   Other award wining reporters are - Helal Uddin of the daily Jugantor for best reporting on investigative economic matters, courtesy of FBCCI; Tarun Sarkar of Jai Jai Din (the best prize for sports, courtesy of Navana); Azizul Parvez of Samakal for reporting on liberation war, courtesy of the Shahid Jaya Hasnahena Smriti Parishad.

Attorney-general Mahbubey Alam on Thursday received a letter at his office containing a fresh threat to kill him and one of his deputies in the Sheikh Mujibibur Rahman murder case, said the police.
   The three-page letter, with a piece of shroud attached to it, threatened the counsels that they would be killed by November 22 if the condemned convicts of the murder case are hanged.
   The threat came at a time when the Supreme Court rejected the appeals filed by the five Death Row convicts and upheld the High Court's death sentences against 12 former army men.
   The Shahbagh thana's officer-in-charge, M Rezaul Karim, told New Age that the personal assistant of the attorney-general, Kabir Ahmed, had filed a general diary with them in this connection.
   The letter mentioned that chief prosecutor of the case, Anisul Huq, would also be killed.
   'Tell Anisul Huq that the same thing will happen to him,' said the letter issued in the name of Jamia Islamia Al Hulhulia Bangladesh, an organisation which is still unknown to the public and may not exist.

The three-day Bishwa Ijtema, an annual event of Tabligh Jamaat, will begin on the bank of the River Turag on January 21, 2010.
   The Bishwa Ijtema is the second largest Muslim congregation after Hajj.
   The first Bishwa Ijtema was held in Tongi Pagar area in 1966. It was sifted from Pagar area to present Bishwa Ijtema Maidan on the bank of the River Turag in 1967.
   Country's founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman allotted a total of 126 acres of land for holding Bishwa Ijtema.
   A three-day 'Jor Ijtema' will begin on the bank of the River Turag in Tongi today.
   The Jor Ijtema is preparatory of Bishwa Ijtema will end November 23 following a munajat. Ijtema organisers said about 60,000 devotees including some foreign devotees would attend.
   The Ijtema committee sources said after the Jor Ijtema, most of the devotees would go out for inviting the people to join the upcoming 44th Bishwa Ijtema.

The police arrested 2,422 people on various charges in separate drives across the country in 24 hours till 6:00am Thursday.
   Twelve firearms, five bombs, eight cocktails and 25 rounds of bullet were also seized during the countrywide drive, said a police headquarters release.
   Besides, 179 motorcycles were seized during the drive for not having valid documents while 985 cases filed in this connection.