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The Dhaka City Corporation and the Dhaka Metropolitan Police traffic wing traded blames as the automated traffic signalling system, put to a dry run, failed to manage the chaotic traffic in the capital on the first day of the week-long trial on Sunday.
   Chaos on the roads began as soon as office hours started and it continued all day long, causing immense sufferings to the people. City roads from end to end were filled with vehicles, none of them moving.
   The traffic policemen shut down the automated signals at about 11:00am and controlled the vehicles manually, traffic wing officials said.
   A senior police official of the traffic wing said they were compelled to shut the system as the flow of vehicles grew unmanageable.
   The corporation has digital signals at 59 points, installed under the World Bank-funded Dhaka Urban Transport Project in 2004. The automated signalling system had been in use for a few days after its installation, but it soon dropped out of use as the system started malfunctioning at many points.
   The traffic wing of the police said the city corporation had set the timing for the signals which caused long queues of vehicles in every road crossing.
   City corporation officials, however, said they were responsible for the monitoring of the signal light switches and the traffic wing of the police had set the timing.
   The acting deputy commissioner of traffic (north) Bidhan Tripura said, 'The city corporation has a traffic department for signal light maintenance, but it hardly looks after the system.'
   'At least 10 signals in my area have for long been out of order. I have informed the authorities concerned of the matter, but they are yet to do anything,' he said.
   'If the city corporation does not want to take the responsibility, the corporation should let us run the system,' he said.
   A city corporation official said they were responsible only to monitor whether the lights were functional and the traffic department set the timing.
   Asked about signals in many points being out of order, the city corporation official said, 'It is our failure that we could not ensure the smooth functioning of the machine.'
   Bidhan Tripura said the city corporation had set green light for 120 seconds in major crossings which could not control vehicle traffic during office hours. 'We allow vehicles to pass by against red signals to minimise the sufferings of the people.'
   An assistant commissioner of police (traffic wing) said the corporation had installed the system and it maintained everything. 'If the entire system is left with us, we can set the timing based on traffic movement.'
   The traffic police on Sunday monitored traffic flow in 12 major crossings: Sonargaon Hotel, Sheraton Hotel, Shahbagh, Mohakhali, Kakoli, Kakrail, Farmgate, Manik Mia Avenue, Gulshan, Baridhara, Gulistan and Jatrabari.
   A city corporation engineer, however, blamed lack of coordination between the corporation and the traffic wing of the police for the failure.
   Before the introduction of the system, both the groups should first have discussed the matter as a number of digital signals are out of order, he said.
   People said they had suffered a lot as the vehicles got stuck at many points. 'I had been stuck in the Farmgate crossing for 45 minutes,' said Parvez Ahmed, who caught the bus from Khamar Bari to Gulistan at 1:41pm by his watch. The bus crossed the signal at 2:23pm.
   Vehicles got stranded from end to end on thoroughfares such as Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue, Minto Road, Tajuddin Ahmed Sarani, Shaheed Sangbadik Selina Parveen Road, Airport Road, Mirpur Road and Elephant Road.
   The Dhaka Metropolitan Police at a briefing on Saturday announced to put in operation the automated traffic signalling system to ease congestion. It said it would also run awareness campaign among drivers and pedestrians till December 7.
   The DMP commissioner, Shahidul Hoque, at the briefing said traffic policemen would start fining vehicles for traffic rules from December 8.
   The police chief said most of the main roads in the capital city would have three lanes: cars, jeeps and vehicles carrying VIPs would use the lane by the road divider, buses, mini-buses, covered vans and pick-ups would use middle lane, and motorbikes, CNG-run auto-rickshaws and human haulers would use the lane by the footpath.
   According to the Dhaka City Corporation, the total city road network spans about 2,290 kilometres - including roads, lanes and by-lanes. The main road network spans only 210km.
   More than 4.7 lakh motorised vehicles such as cars, jeeps, microbuses, taxicabs, CNG-run auto-rickshaws, buses, minibuses, trucks and human haulers are registered with the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority in Dhaka till 2008, according to BRTA statistics.
   Of the vehicles, more than two lakh are cars, jeeps, microbuses and station wagons and more than 15,000 are public buses and minibuses.
   The statistics also show about two lakh motorcycles, 27,000 trucks and 25,000 human haulers ply city roads.
   More than five lakh illegal rickshaws are also on the roads, which add to traffic congestion, Dhaka City Corporation officials said.

The area and number of voters of the Dhaka City Corporation have increased after inclusion of 12 mauzas under Uttara, Gulshan and Lalbagh, but the total number of wards is likely remain unchanged at 90.
   The LGRD and cooperatives ministry issued an order in this regards in the past week and asked the Election Commission to arrange DCC polls after incorporating the 12 mauzas - the lowest revenue plus settlement unit.
   The mauzas are Purakair, Shailkupa, Dakshinkhan and Faidabad under Dakshinkhan union of Uttara, Baunia, Ranabhola, Rasadia and Masumpur under Harirampur union, Bhatara under Gulshan, Samair and Bhola under Satarkul union and Charkamrangi under Sultanganj union of Lalbagh.
   The mauzas had so far been out of the city corporation jurisdiction although some such areas border on or are surrounded by city corporation areas.
   The Election Commission has planned to hold the long overdue elections to the city corporation in March.
   The Election Commission secretariat official concerned said they were yet to get the details whether the newly incorporated areas would be included into existing wards or they would be treated as new wards.
   He, however, said the ministry order indicated not to change the number of wards. 'We will write to the ministry to clarify the issue,' the official said.

The capital Dhaka became the main growth centre for priority sectors like business, education, health,
   and entertainment because of the wrong policies pursued by successive governments that gave little
   attention to other cities.
   Dhaka has received top attention in many areas, including investment from both the public and private sectors, since the country's independence which resulted in rapid growth of industries like garment, real estate, leather, engineering and medicare in and around the capital.
   Experts observed that fast growth of labour-intensive sectors in Dhaka and its outskirts might be a boon for the economy, but resultant population growth was putting great strains on the capital's frail infrastructures like roads, transport and utility services.
   Dhaka, which alone received 12.55 per cent allocation of the Tk 826 billion Annual Development Programmes for the period between 2003-04 and 2006-07, has been wallowing in multifarious problems.
   Crisis of water, gas and electricity, water logging, rising crime and sprawling slums are just a few of the nightmarish problems faced by the residents of the burgeoning metropolis. But most importantly, its notorious traffic is the last straw
   on the camel's back. 'Everyday a substantial portion of business hours is lost due to traffic snarls,' German ambassador in Bangladesh, Holger Michael, said at a recent press conference focusing on the city's nagging traffic problem.
   On an average, 61 cars hit the city's streets daily until August this year. The number is 55 per cent higher than the figure for same period of the last year. There is less than eight per cent space available for the movement of vehicles against the required 25 per cent road space for a city like Dhaka.
   Dhaka University professor of science and population department Dr AKM Nur-Un-Nabi told New Age that the existing city streets were under a tremendous pressure because of influx of poor people from the countryside.
   The population of Dhaka city was only 21,72,000 in 1975 and it has shot up to more than 13 million with unabated influx of people seeking employment and resettlement.
   About two million people, mainly women, now work in some 3,500 garment factories located in Dhaka and the adjoining industrial belts of Nayaranganj and Gazipur. Most of these garment industry workforce migrated from rural areas and settled down in urban slums.
   A 2006 study found three million people living in the city's slums, up from 1.6 million people in 1996. The joint study conducted by the Centre for Urban Studies, National Institute of Population Research and Training and Population Centre of the University of the North Carolina revealed that the number of slums were 3,007 in 1996, which rose to 4,966 in 2006.
   On the basis of the current rate of population growth, the United Nations projected that Dhaka would be home to 16.8 million people in 2015 and would be ranked among the top 20 mega cities in terms of population.
   By then, the city's utility service providers would face tremendous pressure as they are already struggling to cope with higher demands for gas, water and electricity while the law enforcers are finding it difficult to tackle crime in the city, professor of Dhaka University economics department, MM Akash, told New Age.
   The number of cases filed with the city police stations was 1,19,320 in 2004 which rose to 1,57,200 in 2008. In order to tackle the growing crimes, the number of police stations was raised to 38 until last month from 22 in 2004.
   Prof Sarwar Jahan of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology observed that the government would commit another mistake if it goes ahead with the planned elevated expressways and underground railway.
   Such massive infrastructure projects would further encourage the people to migrate to Dhaka, said the head of BUET's department of urban and regional planning.
   Some 40 per cent of the 4,015 private health clinics and hospitals are located in Dhaka, according to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
   The bureau also found that the number of private schools and colleges in the country rose to 78,679 in 2004-05 from 54,360 in 1995-96 with Dhaka being the main centre of their growth.
   REHAB, an association of 558 real state developers, delivered 56,000 flats and, most of them in Dhaka in the last two decades, said its president Tanveerul Islam Probal.
   The REHAB leader said their main focus was on the capital because of high growth and concentration of financial institutions in Dhaka.
   Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies executive director MK Mujeri said the country's financial institutions were concentrated mainly in the capital.
   Mujeri, also a former Bangladesh Bank chief economist, noted that 43 commercial banks, including 30 private commercial banks and more than 50 insurance companies, were operating from the city.
   Experts said the country's second largest city, Chittagong, was home to just three million people. They said the new urban centres were urgently needed to reduce pressure on Dhaka.
   They suggested that the policymakers should look for alterative urban growth centres as everything could not be concentrated only in Dhaka.
   They criticised successive governments for their failure to devise effective strategies to create sustainable employment opportunities in others cities in order to curb the influx of rural people in the capital.
   The previous political government planned to relocate the city's garment units in Gazaria and the tanneries in Savar to ease the pressure of population in Dhaka. The transfer of tanneries industries is being delayed while relocation of garment units remains at the planning stage.

A devastating fire at Wireless Rail Gate Slum in Moghbazar destroyed about a 1,000 shanties, leaving about 5,000 people homeless, early on Sunday.
   Slum-dweller Aleya Begum, 32, died after being hit by a speeding train when she was running helter-skelter near the rail track to save herself from the spreading fire.
   According to local people and affected slum-dwellers, the fire started in one of the shanties at around 3:45am and quickly engulfed the adjacent shanties, which were made of combustible materials.
   The officer-in-charge of the Ramna police station, Shibli Noman, told New Age, 'At first we heard that the fire originated from a mosquito coil but some others slum-dwellers claimed that the fire began because of an electrical short circuit.'
   Ten fire-fighting vehicles from Khilgaon, Tejgaon and Palashi fire stations rushed to the spot and extinguished the fire at around 6:15am after more than two and a half hour's frantic efforts.
   An official of the Fire Service and Civil Defence told New Age, 'The slum was situated behind the rail lines. The passing of two trains at that time delayed the efforts of the fire-fighters after they rushed to the scene.'
   Officials of the FSCD said that the cause of fire was under investigation. According to their estimate, property worth over Tk 96 lakh was lost.
   Renu Begum, a 25-year-old mother of two children, told New Age, 'I was inside my house when I suddenly heard the people crying "fire, fire". I rushed out and saw the blaze advancing towards my shanty. I quickly grabbed my children and ran for cover, but I lost all of my belongings except the clothes I am wearing.'
   Witnesses said the fire engulfed the entire slum in a few minutes as a sudden wind helped the flames to spread throughout the slum.
   Most of the slum-dwellers were garment factory workers, rickshaw-wallahs, day labourers and roadside vendors who were asleep when the conflagration started.
   Hawa Begum, 55, owner of two shanties, told New Age that the fire was spreading so fast that they had to run for their lives and could not save any of their belongings, which were burnt to ashes.
   Local Awami League lawmaker Asaduzzaman Kamal visited the spot, and local Awami League leader Sufi Sultan Ahmed Mollah announced that he would provide meals for the affected slum-dwellers until the government comes up with relief.
   The lawmaker also allowed the victims to stay at the local T&T School's auditorium until they receive relief and can go elsewhere.

Four of the five condemned convicts in the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman murder case, who are in jail, could seek presidential mercy, jail authorities said.
   The four death row convicts, who are thinking of filing review petition for presidential pardon, are sacked lieutenant colonels Syed Faruque Rahman, Muhiuddin Ahmed, AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed and Bazlul Huda.
   They expressed their willingness to file mercy petitions when their families visited them at Dhaka Central Jail on Sunday, senior superintendent of the Dhaka Central Jail, Towhidul Islam told New Age.
   But the fifth convict in jail, sacked lieutenant colonel Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan refused to seek presidential mercy, he said.
   Families of three convicted killers of Sheikh Mujib met them at the Dhaka Central Jail on Sunday.
   Two sisters and a niece of Bazlul Huda, the wife of Mohiuddin Ahmed, and the wife, daughter, son and sister of Shahriar Rashid Khan visited the convicts and talked about possible mercy petition besides family matters for about 30 minutes.
   Towhidul said, 'Their families talked with the three for about 30 minutes over family matters and mercy petition.'
   'Under Section 991 of the Jail Code, a condemned convict gets seven working days to file mercy petition [after the copy of the court verdict reaches the jail authorities],' he said. 'A death row convict is hanged between 21 days and 28 days after receipt of the court verdict.'
   'After we are informed of the rejection of the clemency petition, the jail authorities will set a date and time for the execution of the verdict and notify the trial court and other authorities concerned, but the date and time will be kept secret as per the jail code.'
   The jail authorities on Thursday initiated the follow-up process by conveying to the five convicts in prison the apex court's decision upholding their death penalties.
   Jail officials said that they had conveyed the Appellate Division's decision to the convicts a few hours after the pronouncement of the judgement on Thursday.
   Abdullah Al Mamun, counsel for Bazlul Huda and Mahiuddin Ahmed, said after the verdict, 'This is the verdict of the apex court. There is no scope to appeal further against it.'
   'But the convicts can file petitions for a 'review of the record' according to Article 105 of the constitution. The petition will have to be submitted in 30 days after receiving the copy of the judgment, in line with the Appellate Division's rules,' he said.
   'They have been taking meals as usual since Friday. They are quite normal now,' he said adding that the five convicts did not take food after coming to know about the apex court's verdict on Thursday evening.
   The convicts have been kept in five separate rooms of the Rajanigandha Cell in the Dhaka Central Jail. The authorities have kept a watchful eye on them.
   Seven closed circuit television cameras have been installed to monitor their movement. A mobile jammer has also been installed around the cell to prevent communication with outside.
   A security team headed by a deputy jailor is guarding the cell round the clock.

A parliamentary watchdog on Sunday asked the government to apply immediately to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to allow internet domain names in Bangla as the global internet regulator on November 16 approved web addresses in non-Latin scripts.
   'We want the next International Mother Language Day to be celebrated with internet domain name in Bangla script,' Hasanul Haq Inu, the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on posts and telecommunications ministry, told New Age after a meeting of the committee in Gazipur.
   The ICANN has agreed in principle to allow Bangla as one of languages for domain names, the chairman said, referring to his meeting with Rod Beckstrom, the president and chief executive officer of the non-profit organisation, in the past week.
   The ICANN boss suggested submission of an application by the government.
   Bangladesh should take the opportunity as quickly as possible to register top domain in the Bangla script as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation has recognised February 21 as International Mother Language Day as a mark of respect to the martyrs who laid down their lives for the Bangla language, he said.
   The ICANN approval or non-Latin characters now applies for only domain names connected with the two-letter country codes such as .bd for Bangladesh and .cn for China.
   The so-called generic top-level domain suffices such as .com, .net and .gov will remain Latin-only for now, according to online reports.
   'The ministry must complete the process by this year so that we can celebrate the day with the domain name in Bangla,' Inu said.
   In a move to transform the online world, the internet regulator allowed web addresses in non-Latin scripts considering that more than 1.6 billion people who use the internet speak languages with non-Latin scripts.
   The first internationalised domain names in non-Latin scripts could be in use some time next year although there has been test runs for two years, according to the ICANN.
   The move paves the way for the internet's domain name system to be changed so it can recognise and translate non-Latin characters.
   Sunday's meeting, at the headquarters of the state-run Bangladesh Telephone Shilpa Sangstha with Inu in the chair, asked the authorities concerned to turn the loss-making entity into profit-making by 2011.
   The committee suggested the government should announce the BTSS premises a telecoms and electronics equipment producing zone, which will act as a backward linkage for a digital Bangladesh.
   BTSS officials said it would be able to market locally-produced telephone sets, mobile chargers and batteries, digital electric meters, and mobile sets by April.
   It will go for bigger ventures such as production of solar panels, laptop computers and subscribers identification module cards for mobile at the end of 2010.

The government officers and employees are unlikely to get their salaries in accordance with the new pay scale before the Eid-ul-Azha as work on calculating the raised salaries is yet to be completed, official sources Sunday said.
   'We are still calculating the salaries and allowances of the officers and employees… It's a very complicated task to calculate all the details and it's taking a little time,' said a finance ministry official involved with the matter.
   He said officials engaged in calculating and re-adjusting the salaries and allowances found it difficult to complete their task as the government decided to increase pays at least by Tk 2,000 in each grade.
   Earlier, finance minister AMA Muhith said efforts were being made to start implementation of the new pay scale right from the month of November.
   A special cabinet meeting on November 11 approved the seventh pay scale for some 1.2 million officers and employees on the government's payroll with retrospective effect from July 1 this year.
   The increase in the monthly salaries ranges from 56 to 74 per cent, with the highest pay raised to Tk 40,000 from Tk 23,000 and the lowest to Tk 4,100 from Tk 2,400.
   The implementation of the National Pay Scale 2009 for all the 20 grades of public servants will cost the public exchequer an additional amount of Tk 6,222 crore in yearly revenue expenditure.
   It would be implemented in two phases. Some Tk 3,570 crore would be needed for payment of increased salary from July 2009 with retrospective effect and the rest for other allowances in the second phase to be implemented in July next year.

The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry president, Annisul Huq, has been made president of the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
   He will replace Tariq Saeed of Pakistan and lead the forum of the South Asian businesses for the term 2010-2011. Bangladesh is entitled to lead the SAARC Chamber for this turn as a formal routine.
   The board of directors of the FBCCI on Sunday unanimously approved the election. Abul Kashem Ahmed, first vice-president of the FBCCI, has also been made vice-president of the SAARC Chamber
   Annis earlier served as the president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufactures and Exporters Association for two terms. He was a signatory and negotiator of the minimum wage board for garment and textile sector of the country.
   He is also a director of the International Chamber of Commerce Bangladesh.
   Chief executive of Mohammadi Group, Annis' businesses range from garment manufacturing and exports, software development, power generation and real estate.
   A popular TV presenter, Annis is also involved in various social organisations. He is the chairman of Sharif Rowshan Memorial Trust and Foundation and vice-president of Rakeya Lutful Huq Memorial trust and Maimuna Rashid Zohrul Huq Memorial Trust.

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, on Sunday sent an Eid greetings card to the leader of the opposition in parliament, Khaleda Zia, on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha, which falls on November 28.
   The prime minister’s protocol officer, Pralay Kumer Jourder, handed over the greeting card to Khaleda's private secretary Saleh Ahmed at Khaleda's office at the parliament, the prime minister's press secretary Abul Kalam Azad told New Age.
   The two top leaders earlier exchanged greetings on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha.

The government has decided to ask all secondary schoolteachers not to include any questions in any exams that might defame politicians.
   The government made the decision as it has noticed teachers of some secondary schools and madrassashs had recently included some questions in annual exams that might have defamed some renowned politicians. The questions were included mostly in the ‘creative’ question for religious studies for different classes.
   'Names of some politicians are presented in a 'defamatory manner' in question papers for annual exams in secondary classes in many areas of the country. Such questions are drawing adverse reaction from the people,' said the draft of a circular the government has decided to issue.
   'Teachers are being asked to ensure that no question paper contains any elements that might defame politicians. Names of any politicians who had a role against the war of independence can also not be used in question papers,' it said.
   'Teachers will need to be more careful about using the names of religious personalities or politicians or their activities in question papers,' it said.
   Education ministry officials on Sunday told New Age they would issue the circular in a day or two.
   The copy of the circular will be sent to all secondary schools and madrassahs asking them to go by the directives and all the deputy commissioners will be informed of the matter.
   On November 14, a religious studies teacher of the Chittagong City Government Girls' School was arrested over allegations of including a question for Class VIII students that had defamed the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina.
   In another incident on November 21, newspapers published news on a religious studies question for Class VIII students at the Chittagong Muslim High School. The creative question was focused on the 'patriotism of Jamaat leader Matiur Rahman Nizami.'
   The government earlier introduced 'creative' question papers for all students from Class VI to X. The government introduced 'creative' questions having fractions of marks for different segments aimed at stopping students from being dependent on memorisation.
   The introduction of creative question is a component of the Tk 793-crore Secondary Education Sector Development Project.

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has directed the authorities concerned to formulate a specific policy to control sand extraction from rivers, as unplanned sand extraction is harming the country’s aquatic resources.
   She also gave directives for taking immediate measures to clean up polythene, coconut groves, bottles and other garbage from the riverbeds of Buriganga, Sitalakhya, Turag, and Balu to ensure smooth and effective dredging of waterways.
   The prime minister gave the directives while presiding over the second meeting of the committee on water resources and river dredging affairs at the Prime Minister’s Office Sunday morning. The press secretary to the prime minister, Abul Kalam Azad, briefed newsmen after the meeting on Sunday.
   The first meeting of the committee was held on August 25 this year.
   ‘People must not be allowed to haphazardly extract sands from rivers. Such practices are terribly harming the country’s bio-diversity and environment,’ the prime minister said.
   She said the massive river dredging project being implemented by the government would also be hampered if this chaotic and unsystematic sand extraction is not stopped immediately.
   ‘Before going for sand extraction, it has to be known that from which part of a particular river and how many sands from that will be extracted. If a discipline can be ensured, river dredging and sand extraction can be run simultaneously,’ the prime minister said. She also asked the ministries and departments concerned for ensuring better coordination between giving permission for sand extraction and other official procedures in this regard.
   The prime minister further asked the authorities for taking punitive actions against those who will not abide by the rules and regulations regarding extraction of sands from the rivers.
   About cleaning up the riverbeds, Hasina said the government would give all financial and logistic supports to the departments concerned for removing the river garbage.
   There are 53 waterways in the country of which 50 will be dredged by 2018. Six dredgers out of 16 have already started working through the River Garai.
   About the River Garai dredging, she said this river was very important for sound environment of the coastal areas. ‘If it loses its natural navigability, salinity will increase in the areas bringing down crop production in the region.
   When salinity is increased, habitation and breeding of wild animals in Sundarban, particularly the Royal Bengal Tigers, will be endangered apart from harming the flora and fauna of the mangrove forests, she said.
   As the necessity of latest information and statistics on the rivers Brahmaputra and Jamuna came up for discussion in the meeting, the prime minister said the report made prior to the construction of Bangabandhu Bridge could be the most fruitful research work to move on for more development of waterways in the two major rivers.
   About the recent international summits on climate change, the prime minister said the international leaders had also agreed with her that climate change and food security were interlinked. Hasina said the climate change, particularly in the countries like Bangladesh, was severely harming food production, threatening the government’s target to attain food security.
   She laid emphasis on intensive studies and research works for inventing salinity- and drought-tolerant crop varieties for attaining sustainable food security.
   The prime minister reiterated her call for ensuring a separate fund for the most vulnerable countries to enable them to face the challenges of climate change.
   Agriculture minister Matia Chowdhury, planning minister AK Khandoker, land minister Rejaul Karim Hira, water resources minister Ramesh Chandra Sen, foreign minister Dipu Mon, shipping minister Shahjahan Khan, prime minister’s advisers HT Imam, Mashiur Rahman, state minister for forest and environment Hasan Mahmud attended the meeting.
   Principal secretary to the prime minister MA Karim, PMO secretary Mollah Waheeduzzaman and press secretary to the prime minister Abul Kalam Azad and secretaries of the ministries concerned were present. Later, a delegation of Dredgers’ Association of Bangladesh called on the prime minister at the Prime Minister’s Office. They assured the prime minister of putting in their best efforts to help the government implement its river dredging project.

A Dhaka court on Sunday granted a four-day remand to a suspected member of the Kashmir-based Laskar-e-Tayeba, Abu Motaleb, for interrogation in connection with his alleged link to the plot of attacking the Indian and US embassies in Dhaka.
   Inspector SM Anisur Rahman of the Detective Branch produced him in the court of Metropolitan Magistrate Munshi Abdul Majid with a prayer for 10 days’ remand. But, the court granted a four-day police remand.
   A Detective Branch police team claimed that they arrested Abu Motaleb alias Motu alias Majnu from the Motijheel area of the capital on Friday, but family members of the arrested claimed that a DB police team, led by assistant commissioner SM Rafiqul Islam, arrested Motaleb from a rented house at Uttara Friday morning.
   During the preliminary interrogation, Abu Motaleb confessed that he was a Laskar member and was engaged in recruiting militants from Bangladesh and send them to India and Afghanistan after providing them with training, Mahbub Alam, additional deputy commissioner, said.
   The arrested Laskar member took part in Afghan war from 1987 to 1990, he said.
   He got training on how to handle sophisticated firearms and grenades, the DB sources said.
   Earlier, a DB police team arrested two LeT men Shahidul Islam Sujon and Saiful Islam and their Bangladeshi partner Mufti Harun Izhar, son of Mufti Izharul Islam, amir of a faction of Islami Oikya Jote, from a madrassah at Lalkhan Bazar in Chittagong on November 4.
   Based on their statements, the police later arrested three Pakistani nationals and LeT members Syed Abdul Kaiyum Azhari alias Sufian, 22, Mohammad Ashraf alias Zahid, 24, and Mohammad Monwar Ali, 30, from Tongi in Gazipur and Uttara in Dhaka on November 13.
   The Laskar men had reportedly plotted to attack the US embassy and the Indian high commission in Dhaka.

Four children were killed Saturday afternoon as a big chunk of soil collapsed on them when they were playing on the bank of the River Karatoa in Sirajganj.
   Local people said Arman, 8, son of Abul Kashem, Rafikul, 7, son of Abdul Mazed, Easin Ali, 7, and Eaamin, 8, sons of Zainal Uddin of village Narina under Shazadpur upazila were buried under earth as soil collapsed on them.
   The bodies were recovered by the local people.
   Officer-in-charge of the Shahzadpur police Md Motiar Rahman confirmed the incident.

Paul Collingwood, making a record 171st one-day appearance for England, hit a century, took two wickets and held a superb catch as England gained a comfortable seven-wicket win over South Africa in the second one-international at SuperSport Park on Sunday.
   Collingwood shared a record 162-run third wicket stand with South African-born Jonathan Trott (87) as England chased down South Africa’s total of 250 for nine with 24 balls to spare. Collingwood finished with 105 not out off 110 balls.
   Trott, whose only previous one-day international was a low-key match against Ireland in August, when he was out without scoring, opened the batting and paced his innings skillfully as he and Collingwood enabled England to get on top after they had been struggling at 45 for two after 11.3 overs.
   Despite half-centuries from Hashim Amla (57) and Alviro Petersen (64), South Africa were unable to score enough runs on a slow pitch against steady bowling which was backed by good fielding.
   South Africa’s total was only nine runs higher than they made in a Twenty20 international against the same opponents on the same ground seven days earlier.
   After heavy rain in the area, which caused Friday’s first one-day international in Johannesburg to be abandoned without a ball bowled, the pitch was slower than usual, making scoring difficult.
   Collingwood’s slow medium pace proved ideal in the middle stages of the innings as he took two for 24 in six overs.

The government has made it mandatory for all drugstores across the country to have fridge for storing medicines at right temperatures.
   ‘Temperature-sensitive medicines especially used for human beings and animals and birds are needed to be preserved at certain temperatures,’ said an official announcement carrying the order.
   ‘Hence, having fridge at every medicine shop is essential as these medicines lose effectiveness if not preserved at controlled temperatures.’
   Having drug licence for sale, distribution, storage and display of any medicine such as allopathic, Aurvedic, unani, homoeopathic, biochemic and herbal is also mandatory.
   ‘This is for information of country’s all medicine businessmen (allopathic, aurvedic, unani, homoeopathic, biochemic and herbal) that having drug licence is a must for sale, distribution, storage and display of any medicine,’ said the government order.
   Drug licence is also mandatory for sale, distribution, storage and show of medicines used for treatment of animals and birds.

Swine flu has killed four Hajj pilgrims in Saudi Arabia, health authorities said on Saturday only a few days before the massive Muslim gathering reaches its peak.
   An Indian man, a Moroccan woman and a Sudanese man — all aged 75 — died from A(H1N1), as had a 17-year-old girl from Nigeria, Saudi health ministry spokesman Khaled al-Marghlani said.
   ‘They all had pre-existing conditions, including the Nigerian woman who had a chest-related problem, Also, none of them took the (H1N1) vaccine,’ Marghlani said.
   An estimated 2.5 million Muslims are expected to converge in Saudi Arabia for this year’s Hajj, making it the world’s largest gathering since swine flu began spreading around the globe after it was first reported in April.
   The fatalities in Saudi Arabia were the first among pilgrims to the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah since the outbreak of swine flu.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Sunday accused ‘the ruling party goons’ of attacking the council sessions of the party’s local units in a bid to foil its national council session scheduled for December 8.
   ‘The goons of ruling party are attacking the council sessions of lower units of our party across the country so we cannot hold our national council. Local administrations are also behaving like them. We strongly condemn such attitude of the administration,’ said Rizvi Ahmed, the party’s office secretary at its central office at Naya Paltan.
   ‘At many places the ruling party men announce programmes at the venues for council session of our local units and the local administration are imposing section 144 to foil our programmes,’ he said.
   ‘When the [BNP] activists across the country are showing enthusiasm about council sessions, the ruling party is out to foil the programmes by unleashing goons, imposing section 144 and attacking the houses of BNP leaders in a bid to obstruct our national council session so that the party cannot complete the procedure for its registration,’ he said.